The Shadow Ninja
by PepsiLover919
Summary: Sakura over hears her team talking about her behind her back after returning from her first solo mission. She decides to leave, with Tsunade's approval for three years. She returns to find and overjoyed team. Sasuke starts falling in love with Sakura.
1. She Returned Three Years Later

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY PART OF THE SHOW.

About two weeks before today, Sakura Haruno, the sixteen year old, pink haired kunoichi had visited her aunt. A well respected woman that had once helped Konoha in a battle. She wanted to teach Sakura her Shadow Jutsu, something similar to what Shikimaru does, but different as well. She'd found this to be the easiest Jutsu to ever learn and mastered it within a few days time.

The Jutsu allowed Sakura to teleport over great distances, not just a normal 30 meters like everyone else can do, it also used a minimum amount of chakra. Along with creating strong shadow creatures that were strong with Tai-Jutsu.

Also learning about less shadow related Jutsu's, Sakura learned an appearance Jutsu, multi-elemental Jutsu (which would allow her to learn any kind of Jutsu that there was for any kind of element, and chakra string usage.

I strolled down the bustling streets of Konoha, seeing all the children running around with plastic kunai and ninja stars. They were all so cute, it was just so easy to smile at how much that they were having.

Heading towards the training grounds, I double checked that I had all of my shuriken in its proper places. It was a good day to be out training, even if I was going to be there all alone, it's not like anyone on my team really wanted to train along with me. They all, deep down, believed that I was still that same weak little pink haired girl that needs to be protected. You'd think that after being able to beat Naruto with my bare hands, without using any chakra too.

Stepping onto the grounds I sensed a familiar chakra coming towards me, which wasn't strange, since they always train here whenever possible.

"Uchiha, nice to see you." I greeted, smiling politely at my childhood crush.

"Hn." he grunted back.

Rolling my eyes I headed towards a more tree infested area, but not before glaring back at Uchiha. He seemed to be unaffected on the outside, but inside, what I didn't know was that every time I glared or glanced at him, his heart would start to beat a little faster. He masked his own chakra and followed the pink haired kunoichi, enjoying watching him train.

"Time to break these new babies in." I said to myself, while pulling on my black fighting gloves.

Stretching my arms out, I took aim at a large tree trunk. Focusing chakra into my right hand, I let my fist make contact with the trunk and found myself surrounded with flying wood. Smiling happily, I continued to punch and kick the trees around me until they were all shattered into tiny shards. Sweat dripped down my face from the long hour workout.

"Silly Sakura, you should really be more careful, you could get yourself hurt."

Giggling to myself, I strolled out of the training grounds and headed back towards the Hokage tower, where I knew that my Sensei would be, sleeping no doubt with an empty sake bottle in her hand.

Heading up the steps, I stopped outside Tsunade-sama's office, listening to make sure that she was the only one in the office. I was positive, knocking on her door I waited, remotely patient for her to answer.

"Come in." she called groggily.

Entering the room, I smiled cheerfully at my Sensei. She smiled back and picked up her empty bottle of sake.

"Well, it's a good thing that you came by. I've got a mission for you to do, you up for a solo?"

"What kind of mission would it be Tsunade-sama?"

She shuffled around some papers on her desk, looking for the scroll that had the mission on it.

"It's a B-Class escort mission to the village hidden in the mist. It shouldn't give you any problems."

"Hia! When will we be leaving?" I asked calmly.

_FINALLY! A solo mission! I'll be all by myself, this will prove to my team that I can take care of myself._

"In an hour. Go home and get ready. This should take about a week to finish."

Bowing to Tsunade-sama, I left quickly so that she could resume to her "working" in the office. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, I hurried to my apartment. It wasn't going to take long for me to get ready for the mission, but then again I could be wrong.

Throwing a few scrolls into my bag along with shuriken, I locked all the windows and headed for my door. Locking it behind me, I headed for Kakashi's apartment complex.

_It's probably best if I tell him about my mission, so that he knows why I'm not at the team training sessions._

Channeling chakra to my feet, I ran up to the steps to his third floor room. Knocking a few times, I listened to him to approach the door sluggishly.

"Hello, Kakashi-Sensei, how are you on this fine day?" I asked sweetly, stepping into his apartment.

He eyed me suspiciously with his only visible eye.

"I'm fine. Why are you here?"

Smiling proudly, I answered his question.

"Got a mission. I thought that you should know, so when I don't come to the training sessions you'll know why."

"You got a WHAT?!"

"Mission." I answered, stepping back from the white haired copy ninja.

"How did you..... but your so..... how?"

He didn't look as angry now, but shocked was the definite emotion at the moment.

"Tsunade-sama gave it to me," I mumbled, feeling bad that I even came here to tell him.

"But why?" he asked, not grasping the concept.

I rolled my eyes at my Sensei and headed towards the door.

"I'm not that weak little ninja that was on your team years ago. I've grown, or can you not tell?"

With that, I left his apartment, closing the door behind me.

Guess I go and meet my escort now.

Jumping from rooftops, I reached the gates quickly and waited calmly.

"Here she is! Hurry to the land hidden in the mist."

Standing there was Tsunade's other apprentice, Shizune. She held a blue haired girl in her arms, she appeared to be about 6 years old.

"A little kid?" I asked, humor in my voice.

"She's so sweet! Her mom is waiting for her in the land hidden in the mist, so I'd hurry and get going. Before I left Kakashi was hurrying into the office to speak with Tsunade-sama."

"Thanks Shizune!"

Taking the girl in my arms, I hurried off towards the land hidden in the mist.

**(Time Skip) One week later.....**

I walked casually into the village, smiling politely at the guards who were watching the gate. They seemed to noticed the few rips and tears in my clothes, since they wouldn't stop starring at me. Heading towards the Hokage Tower, I could help but get an uneasy feeling about it.

Walking up the stairs, I sensed three different chakra's with my Sensei. Recognizing them at once, I masked my own so that they wouldn't notice me, I wanted to hear what they were talking about.

Listening through the door I could hear Naruto talking.

"She's not ready for a solo mission. She so fragile!" Naruto complained.

"Fragile and weak are definitely a problem." Sasuke commented.

Kakashi still hadn't said anything. He was my last hope that the entire team didn't think that I was weak and fragile.

"Sakura seems to still be dead weight on the team and her only good use is that she is a medical ninja. Her emotions keep her weak and she's still fragile."

I growled and burst through the door, keeping my face emotionless.

"I've finished my mission, Hokage-san. There had been small mix-up on the way, but I handled it properly. The money will be arriving here tomorrow."

"Thank you Sakura. Would you like to hear about your next mission with the team?"

I stared at her, my face unchanging.

"No." I answered her flatly.

"No?"

"Ha, no." I repeated.

She stood up and walked around her desk so that she was standing right in front of me. She lowered her face so that it was even with mine.

Kakashi and Sasuke sweat dropped.

"Sakura Haruno, are you sure that you would like to remain off the team for the mission that you have not even heard yet?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

She stepped back to sit on her desk and shoed me away, leaving only my remaining team members there to hear of there new mission.

I went up onto the roof of the tower and listened carefully to there conversation, waiting for them to leave before I went back down to talk with Tsunade.

"Your mission is to collect information from the sand village, Gaara will be waiting for you. You have an hour before meeting up at the gates and departing. Now leave."

The three guys quickly left the office, giving me my cue to re-enter her office. Climbing through the window gracefully, I saw that she was smiling kindly at me.

"Thank you for coming back. Would you please explain why you don't want to go on another mission?"

I smiled at her and sat down on her desk.

"Oh, I do want to go on another mission, it's just different then you had in mind for me. I've got an offer for you," I took a deep breath, "I'd like to go missing. To improve myself even more, but still work for Konoha."

"Is this what you really want? To leave without anyone but me having knowledge of where you really are?"

Thinking about that for a minute.

"Yes. I believe that I will get stronger. I wont leave Konoha as a traitor, because I'll have been working on missions the entire time."

She looked me up and down before sighing.

"There is but one condition. When I think that it's time fore you to return, meaning that you become Sakura Haruno again, you will come. No arguments."

"Agreed. I'll be back in an hour to let my new life begin."

Teleporting to my bedroom, I went into my closed to change into my new uniform. I wore a mesh shirt that only covered my stomach, it has a strip of black clothes that covered my breasts, and the mesh then continues down both of my arms, my thumbs through the end. My black fighting gloves had the fingertips cut off, revealing the ends of my fingers with neon green nail polish on the nails. I pulled on a mask that was like Kakashi's and a tank top that was black. Wearing short black shorts, I fixed my forehead protector so that it was on a white clothes instead of a pink one. I strung it through and wore it as a belt on my shorts.

Painting my toenails the same neon green color, I slipped on black ninja sandals and then looked in the mirror at myself. No matter how I looked at it, I would still be recognized as Sakura Haruno. My pink hair would give me away, along with my bright green eyes.

_I guess, deep down, I knew that I'd have to change myself. It's now or never._

Quickly I did a few quick hand signs and could feel my body tingle slightly. When I reopened my eyes, I found a girl with pale pastel blue eyes starring back at me, her hair a similar color.

Smiling slightly, I teleported back to the Hokage Tower, only to find her waiting for me.

"Sakura, are you ready?" she asked, smirking at my new look.

"The Spirit Ninja is ready to take on any mission."

**Three Years Later......**

I sighed as my beloved village came into view. Everything looked the same, like I'd never left.

Wonder how all my friends are going to react to me returning. Would they accept me or hate me? I hope Naruto isn't mad with me.

Shrugging off the uneasy feelings, I walked through the gates, only to be stopped by my old team standing at the gates. Kakashi had his arms crossed across his chest as he watched me closely. Seeing them be all hostile towards me, it made me glad that they didn't know who I am.

"Do you have business here or should we catch you now?" Naruto growled.

I rolled my eyes and growled at him.

"Why I do have business here, if you'll excuse me."

I tried to side step around them, only to be blocked by Sasuke.

"Where's your proof?"

Smiling happily, I handed him my scroll that had been hand written by Tsunade. While the three men all huddled around the scroll, I disappeared in a whirl of pink cherry blossoms, smiling happily to myself.

Appearing outside Tsunade-sama's office, I knocked quietly on the door and heard a loud come in.

Entering carefully, I smiled at Tsunade through my mask.

_She's still the same old Tsunade that I know and love._

"It's been a long time, eh?"

"I'm glad that you're back, did you have any trouble getting in?"

Biting my lip, I sensed the those three very familiar chakra signatures approaching us.

"Yeah, the trouble's on its way here though."

We laughed together and I sat down on her desk while she stood leaning it against it next to me.

"5.... 4.... 3.... 2.... 1...."

The door burst open and there stood Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke. They all looked like they were ready to kill, which appeared to be extremely funny.

"Thanks for coming, now I don't have to send a messenger out to get you." Tsunade-sama said, smiling evilly.

"She'd dangerous," Kakashi said.

"Nah, little ol' me? Dangerous? That's unspeakable! Right Tsunade-Sensei?"

Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

"I know, you're so FRAGILE!" she added.

"Along with me being so darn WEAK!"

I watched my past team look to one another confused. They didn't understand what were trying to get across.

"Well, since you're all here, I'd like to introduce your new team member, the Spirit Ninja. She's been without team for about three years now and would like to RE-CLAIM her spot. Since her former team is still down on member." Tsunade-sama said slyly.

"WHAT! NO! NOBODY WILL REPLACE SAKURA!" Naruto shouted angrily at us.

"Naruto, be quiet. Sakura has been gone for three years. She's dead. Not coming back."

I clenched my hand into a tight fist. Jumping down from the desk, I stepped over to Kakashi and glared at him.


	2. Knock Out Punch!

"Don't you think that anything can happen, Kakashi-SENSEI!!"

I flung my fist into his face, without using any chakra and he went flying threw the door, shattering it into pieces.

"SAKURA!" Tsunade shouted, rushing over to Kakashi and quickly healing the unconscious copy ninja.

Sasuke and Naruto turned there heads very slowly towards me (you could cut the dramatic effect with a knife).

"What's your name?" Sasuke asked.

Smiling happily at them, I waved in a teasing way at them. Sasuke's eye twitched slightly.

"Kakashi, have a seat on the couch. You'll feel even better in a minute." Tsunade said, setting him down gently on the couch.

I smirked at them and then returned to sitting on the desk. Kakashi sat there glaring at me with both his eyes, since he had to take off his forehead protector.

"I'd like to introduce to you, your rejoining team mate, Sakura Haruno."

I pulled my mask down and did a few quick hand signs. Kakashi's eye's widened at how you could barely see my hands.

"Release!" I said quietly, my eyes closed.

Reaching up, I took my ponytail out and let my hair fall down pastel pink, the color that it should be. I opened my eyes to reveal bright green ones. I smiled sweetly at them and noticed that all three of them had a small tint of pink on there cheeks.

"S-Sakura? Is it really you?" Naruto asked, scooting closer to me.

"In the flesh." I answered.

I stood up and ran my fingers through my waist length hair, a flirty smile on my face, making the boys faced turn an even darker shade of pink. In the back of my head I could only imagine what they were thinking in there heads. Over the three years I'd grown in many different ways.

"Its great to have you back." Sasuke said, his eyes glued to my chest.

"Yeah, you've really been missed." Naruto said.

"Me really? A weak, fragile, unwanted, deadweight, had been missed? I'm shocked!" I said in an annoying voice.

They starred at me blankly.

"We never said-"

I slapped my hand over Naruto's mouth, stopping him from finishing.

"Not to my face you didn't, but I heard you all tell Tsunade-sama about it the day I returned from my first solo mission. I'm sure you remember that by the time you get back, that I had been a weeks travel away without leaving a single trail for you to follow, right?"

Sad expressions all came to there faces.

"Sakura, I've got your apartment paid for and your bank account under your real name. Sasuke can show you where it is."

I whipped around to stare at my Sensei, not sure to believe her or not. She was smiling evilly at me.

"Thank you, I will return in the morning to report of everything that happened over the three years.... unless you'd like these scrolls. I'd written down everything in great detail for you."

She nodded, so I gave her seven scrolls. Her eyes grew slightly, but she was careful not to let her voice falter when she thanked me.

"We'll I'll be heading for the training grounds now." I said, backing away from them.

Kakashi saw this and grabbed onto my arm, keeping me in the office.

"You're not going there alone, what if something tries to attack you?" he asked, concern in his voice.

I pulled my arm easily from his strong grip. Rolling my eyes I shrugged.

"I'd been out in the world all alone. Without you three. Killed and kicked butt by myself. I'm sure I can handle a silly little training field alone." I said sarcastically.

When I saw the worry in his eyes, along with my other two team mates, I sighed and glanced over at a snickering Tsunade.

"Why don't you come and spar with me then, that way I can blow off some steam and you can see how far I've come."

The three of them all seemed to like my idea because they followed me like little puppies. I stopped at the training grounds number 7, the first one that I'd ever been on in my life of a ninja.

I noticed that the wind picked up slightly, a nice idea for some of my newly learned Jutsu's.

"Who's up first for a little one on one?" I asked.

"I'll go."

Smirking to myself, I pulled my mask back up and adjusted my gloves.

"Bring it little fox."

He fell into a fighting stance while I stood there casually. Knowing that he'd take it easy, along with giving the first attack.

He charged at me a kunai in his hand. Smirking, I pulled out a kunai of my own, but jumped over the charging Naruto. I didn't sense any chakra coming from the one running at me, I knew that the real Naruto was there watching in utter shock.

I threw my kunai at him, which he dodged easily. He smirked and charged at me with his fists up, standing there, I waited till the perfect moment and took him down in two easy minutes.

"Who's next?"

I'd barely broken a sweat beating up Naruto.

"I'll take you. This'll be easy."

He was glaring at me with his Sharigan activated.

"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots." I teased, making him growl.

Sasuke was going to be slightly harder to fight against, but I knew what his best flaw was.

"You'll stop." I whispered as he charged at me.

"Ha!"

I shrugged and made hand signs similar to what you'd do to create shadow clones.

"Shadow Creatures.... ATTACK!"

A swarm of blob like shadow creatures appeared before me, charging quickly and forcefully at Sasuke. He killed a few, but not before I could join in and make most of the blows against him.

"That's for calling me weak!" I shouted, punching him in the gut.

"That's for calling me fragile!" I kicked him into the air.

"That's for being a jerk!" I punched him into a tree, knocking him unconscious.

Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I glared at Kakashi, knowing that he'd be next. I'd saved my special attack just for him, knowing that he'd enjoy it immensely.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

He raised his forehead protector and immediately started throwing shurriken at me, it was a shower of metal weapons. The remaining shadow creatures blocked them all for me, even though it killed them in the process.

While that was happening, I had both my hands held down at my sides. A crackling pink ball of lightening and swirling chakra in each hand.

"Saving the best for last." I said.

Charging at him, I held both my hands out towards him, aiming to kill.

"Chidogon!" (A mix of Reasengan and Chidori)

I lowered my arms towards the ground so that I didn't hid him, but the impact threw him back quite a distance, he flew threw a few trees before I caught up to him and caught him. His eyes were wide with both fear and pain.

"When did you learn THAT?!" Kakashi asked shakily.

"That was so cool, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called to us.

"Shut up you dobe!"

"Teme!"

I rolled my eyes at the two of them and set Kakashi down on the grass gently.

"Hold still so that I can heal you all."

**One hour later.....**

"Now that that's off my chest, where's my new home?"

They all looked to one another wearily.

"I live with you now, don't I?"

They all nodded, taking a step back. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, controlling my emotions.

"Take me there now."

Kakashi lead the way, but soon remembered that he wasn't living with us, he had moved in with Anko, from the second Chunnin exams. He poofed away in a puff of smoke like he always does, leaving me there alone with Naruto and Sasuke.

"Ugh! Can you walk any faster? I healed you so hurry up!"

"Wait, where's all my clothes? Stuff from my parents house?"

Turning to look at the two boys I saw they were silent, starring at the ground.

"It's all in my room, right? Packed in the moving boxes."

They box laughed sheepishly.

"Thank you. That was very kind of you."

We hurried to the place, which was located in the Uchiha district, and it happened to be one of the mansions. My eyes nearly popped out when Sasuke showed me my room. It was huge! A large balcony, a small walk-in closet, and my own bathroom with a claw foot tub.

Turning around, I found that Sasuke had already left.

_Go figure, he's still the same old ice cube that I remember. Although he did blush this afternoon, it was pretty funny. I think this, living with two boys, could turn out to be quite entertaining._

Going over to the boxes of all my packed things, I started to unpack them and place them in varies spots around the room. I hung up all my clothes and found that I'd need to do some serious shopping for new clothes. Most of my shirts were to small for me and most of my skirts and shorts were to big for me, seeing as I'd lost some wait while being out in the field.

**One Hour Later.....**

I went down the stairs quietly, hoping that Sasuke was still awake. He was, like I assumed, sitting on the couch reading a scroll while sipping tomato juice.

Mentally gagging, I walked over to the couch.

"Could I please borrow you shampoo and maybe.... one of your t-shirts?"

He looked at me like I'd spoken some strange language.

"Ask Naruto." I said, returning to his reading.

"He's out with Hinata-chan. I'm stuck with you. Please, I'll give it back tomorrow."

"No."

Sighing, I shrugged my shoulders and headed back upstairs. Hopping into the shower that was also in my room, I hurried threw it. Wrapping a towel tightly around my body, I dried off and grabbed my black boxer underwear, the kind made for girls so that its short and tight. Slipping on a green sports bra, I pulled my white t-shirt over it.

_I'll grab a quick bit to eat then come back up for some rest._

Slipping out of my room, I hurried down the stairs, only to find Sasuke still reading that same stupid scroll.

"Did you find something to...."

I looked over at him, only to see his face pink. It hadn't occurred to me that I was just wearing underwear.

"Sure did! You like it?"

He looked away quickly.

"S-sure."

Smirking, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a microwave-able ramen cup and put it into the microwave. The smell of chicken over whelmed my senses as I took out the cooked ramen.

_Now I'll just take this upstairs and eat it._

Walking through the living room, I glanced at a blushing Sasuke.

"Sakura, why did you leave?"

After nearly choking on my ramen, I sat down at the other end of the couch.

"I needed to. I new that I could strengthen myself. I hoped that when I returned home you'd all see a new Sakura, but I guess that I was completely wrong. I'm still that weak little girl that you new."

"When did we ever accuse you of being weak?"

I rolled my eyes and took a bit of my noodles.

"All the time and even if you didn't say it, you'd show it. Jumping in front of me and defending me. I've been quite capable of taking care of myself and have been for the past three years now."

Sasuke took my ramen cup from me and pinned me down underneath him. I glared at my teammate, but before I could even protest he....

Lightly pressed his lips to mine. Smiling, I waited till he closed his eyes, then quickly, I flipped us over so that he was pinned down instead of me.

"Well, well, well."

His head shot up and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

"What? You look like you've seen a ghost." my copy said.

"W-who...."

I held onto the kitchen door frame laughing at Sasuke. He growled evilly at my clone and punched her in the face, making her disappear.

"What? Sasuke-_kun_? Why do you look so angry?" I asked in my most innocent voice.

He rolled his eyes and glared at me.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, his eyes had softened slightly.

"Doing what?"

_What's he talking about? I was just having a little fun._

"Acting like this."

He waved his hand up and down at me. I looked down, confused about what was wrong with me. I kept my hair remotely clean, kept myself covered for the most part, and never once had I been to harsh on anyone that respected me.

"Dressing like this, keeping your hair long, being tough."

I glared at him and picked up my clones ramen cup.

"I'm acting free. No worries or words holding me down. I'll see you in the morning Sasuke, goodnight." I said coldly.

Walking up to my room, I passed Sasuke's room. Temptation was stronger then I thought that it would be. Looking both directions of the hallway, I snuck in and flipped on the light.

His room was so light. It was really empty though, with only a few pictures on a small table in the corner. One was of him and his family, before the Uchiha massacre, the other was of our team when we were younger (I'd still had a crush on him then), and the third was of the team without me. They were all dressed in black and holding pink roses.

They looked like they'd been crying in the picture.

This must have been taken after I left, when they couldn't find a trail to follow.

The fourth picture was of me, the glass cracked in the center, like it had been punched. Smirking, I hurried out of the room, quickly retreating to my own.

Like I could believe that the great Uchiha could actually have missed me.

Laying down on my bed I let myself drift off into sleep. The silence was extremely calming, considering Konoha isn't very quiet.


	3. A Girl in the House

**The Next Day.....**

"Teme!"

"Dobe!"

"Teme!"

"Dobe!"

"Teme!"

"Dobe!"

"Teme!"

"Dob-"

I punched both boys in the head, making Naruto cry. Laughing caught my attention quickly. At the table sat Kakashi, eating a bowl of cereal, watching the three of us.

"Something funny?"

He tried to get his act together, but couldn't when Sasuke joined in with him.

"You, you look like you just got up." Kakashi laughed, falling onto the floor laughing even harder.

"You're kidding right? I did just get up. How can you SLEEP with them yelling at one another all morning long."

Sasuke calmed himself down somewhat and stood by my side.

_Weirdo. What's so funny about the way I look._

He led me over to the table and had me take a seat.

"SAKURA-CHAN!!"

"SHUT UP! I'VE HEARD YOU YELLING ALL MORNING!! ALL I WANT IS A LITTLE PEACE AND QUIET, IS THAT TO HARD, NARUTO?!"

The entire room had gone silent.

"Thank you."

Smirking to myself, I rested my head on my arms on the table. Before I could let myself even doze back off, Sasuke shook me slightly.

"Hey, we've got some welcome back gifts for you," Sasuke said in a softer tone.

Looking up at him I saw something in his eyes, a strange emotion that I wished to see when I was younger, was there in his eyes.

"Why should I? They're probably stupid things for protection right?"

I pushed him back and stood up from my seat. Walking over to the fridge, I grabbed a can of the Pepsi that was sitting in there, keeping cold. The three boys stared at me worried.

"Well?" I asked impatiently, cracking open the Pepsi.

"I guess some things never change." Kakashi chirped, pulling out a present from his pocket.

Naruto pulled out a wrapped present from one of the cupboards. Sasuke grabbed his from his pocket.

"Me first! Me first! Please Sakura-chan!" Naruto begged, bouncing up and down.

I rolled my eyes at how loud he was, but took the present anyway.

Wonder what the ramen loving loud mouth got me.

Sliding my finger under the tape, I accidentally cut my finger, but ignored it so that it didn't worry these three worrisome boys.

I was shocked to find a sweatshirt with a bowl of ramen on it. There was also a bowl of ramen shaped pillow in the box.

"Thank you, Naruto."

Smiling sweetly at him, I saw his cheeks turn slightly pink.

"Here, now mine, please!"

I sweat dropped at Kakashi. He was acting like a little kid, no worse, he was acting like Naruto.

_Weird._

"Alright, hand it over."

He slid me the small present wrapped in silver paper. It was beautifully wrapped, if my blood hadn't dripped accidentally onto it.

"She's bleeding!" Naruto shouted.

"Hurry! We've got to get her to the hospital!" Sasuke said freaking out.

"I'll get the Goss pads!" Kakashi said.

Giggling, I healed my finger and then returned to opening the present, ignoring the three panicking men. Inside was a black ipod nano and a black cell phone (idk what the slidey ones are called, but its not the chocolate). Looking through the contacts, I noticed that everyone from the rookie nine was programmed into my phone, along with all the Sensei's and Tsunade.

"Thank you, Kakashi. That was very generous of you."

The three stopped and looked at me and how I was sitting there calmly sipping my Pepsi.

"I'm not bleeding, healed myself back to perfectly new. Now SIT down and CALM down."

They did and I looked to Sasuke. He was trying to avoid eye contact when he handed me my gift.

Carefully unwrapping it, I opened the small box to find a necklace with four separate charms on it. The Haruno circle, the Uzamaki swirl, the ANBU tattoo, and the Uchiha symbol. Smirking, I let Sasuke get the clasp behind my neck.

"That's not the only one," Naruto said while poking Sasuke in the ribs, "I saw him put something else in there too."

Both me and Sasuke glared at Naruto for trying to embarrass us both, even though it was working.

He was right, in the box was a anklet with the Uchiha symbol an the Haruno circle.

"Thank you Sasuke-kun, that was very sweet of you."

His face turned bright red.

_I appreciate this more then you know, more then you could ever know._

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to head upstairs and change."

Leaving the room I hurried quickly to my room, not once taking off the necklace or anklet.

**With The Boys.....**

"That was sweet." Kakashi gagged.

"Oh shut up, you're just jealous that she liked my gift better." Sasuke mocked, sticking his tongue at Kakashi.

"Hardly!" Kakashi muttered, turning away like a little kid.

Naruto was being very silent for himself.

"Do you think that she's going to stay?" he asked quietly.

They stopped bickering with one another and stared at Naruto.

"Why wouldn't she? Sakura looks genuinely happy." Kakashi said.

"Can you really mean that? We haven't seen her in three years. For all we know, that smile is fake and she's keep all the emotions bottled up inside." Sasuke said.

"Sakura would never do that. She'd been so emotional yesterday when she fought. Why keep them all inside?" Naruto said.

They looked to one another confused.

"Well, I know for a fact that we all can't have her. So what are we going to do?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto and Sasuke growled at there sensei.

"YOU cannot have her considering that there's a freakishly huge age difference. So I guess that leaves me." Naruto said.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and headed towards the his bedroom, he needed to take a shower and calm himself down.

**Back with Sakura.....**

I turned off the water and reached out of the small shower for a towel. Wrapping it around me tightly, I stepped out and dried my feet on the shower mat outside the shower.

_There, he'll never know that I was in here. Heheh..... I'm so smart._

I closed his bathroom door behind me and stepped into Sasuke's room, thankful that he wasn't in here changing or something.

Stepping out into the hall, I heard a small gasp.

_Shoot! I've been caught!_

Turning around slowly, I found Sasuke starring at me, his face pink, eyes as big as saucers.

_She's beautiful, the way the waters clinging to her nymph like body, it's just so..... so.....amazing. I can't believe I never noticed her like this before. I've just got to...._

"Sasuke? Are you okay?"

I reached out towards him, but stopped and let my arm drop.

_I thought that I'd lost these feelings. I don't want to feel this again. He hurt me twice now and I'm not going to let it happen again._

"I'll go get dressed."

I ran down the hall and up the stairs to my room, currently located on the second floor of the house. Entering my room, I changed into my black shorts and pulled on the mesh top that I wore over the three years, along with the black tank-top. Running my white headband belt through the loops, I slipped on my black ninja shoes and my fingerless gloves.

Teleporting downstairs, I stood in the middle of the room. Smiling cheerfully at my team, I gestured towards the door, hoping that they would follow me.

"What is there to do today?" I asked barely able to stifle a yawn.

"Not much, you're not allowed to go on any missions. Tsunade just wants to make sure that you don't try and run off again." Kakashi said calmly.

Nodding, I looked to Sasuke then to Naruto. They were glaring at one another evilly.

_Weeeelllllll....... I think I'll go talk to Tsunade...._

"With Tsunade, see you later." I said and disappeared in a whirl of cherry blossom petals.

**In The Hokage's Office.....**

"Did you read my scrolls?" I asked tiredly, sitting down on the couch in her office.

"Yes, you had been very busy. But there was something that I was meaning to ask you about....."

She looked at me awkwardly.

"Yes?"

"Well, there's a small mention of you being in Suna, spending time with the Kazakage and his siblings."

I blushed slightly and smiled.

"Yes, I had spent some time there. Gaara, had been very kind. He taught me come new Jutsu's that I've learned and mastered."

"Oh, well that's okay."

I raised my eyebrow at her amused.

"I have strengthened my friendship with him, this can only make our countries stronger as allies."

"Yes, much stronger." she agreed.

**With The Boys.....**

"Sasuke!"

The group of boys looked up to see Ino running towards them.

"Yeah?" he asked warily.

"Is it true? Did Sakura really come back?" Ino asked, obviously overjoyed.

He sighed.

"Yes, she's back."

She squealed loudly before running back towards the floral shop where she worked with her family part time.

_Why would I have a bad feeling about telling Ino that Sakura is back?_ Sasuke thought.

"I should warn you," Shikamaru said, "She's going to throw a huge welcoming party for her. How troublesome."

Shikamaru was starring off after where Ino had just run, making Sasuke feel slightly disgusted at the thought to the two together.

"A party sounds like fun though, doesn't it?" Naruto asked, his mouth full of ramen.

An evil smirk came to all the boys faces. They all had the same perverted ideas coming to them.

"Let's get the other girls together and plan this welcoming party." Kiba said, making himself noticed.

The guys headed towards the floral shop, ready to confront Ino with there grand (perverted) idea.

**One Week Later.....**

I groaned and sat up in my bed. Today was going to be that stupid welcoming party that my old friends all wanted to throw for me. It's not like I don't appreciate them doing this for me, but I'm really not one for big gatherings. After being alone mostly for the past three years, I still wasn't accustomed to being around everyone really, unless I'd been strangely close to them. My team would be a good example of that or Tsunade-sensei.

_Wonder if the others are awake at the moment._

"Shut up Teme!" Naruto shouted downstairs.

"Dobe, you'll wake up Sakura!" Sasuke growled back.

Flopping back down on my bed, I ran my fingers over the soft Uchiha fan on my necklace. That was the only charm on it that I really liked, but I really didn't want to offend my other teammates by removing the other three, so I just left them on.

"Teme!"

"Dobe!"

Rolling my eyes, I got out of bed I pulled on a pare of old sweatpants and went downstairs with just my pink green sports bra on. Ino was going to come by later today, she wanted to get me new clothes to wear for the party, claiming that I had a seriously crimpled wardrobe.

Both boys stopped arguing when I walked into the kitchen, like they do every morning.

"What time will Ino be here?" I asked sleepily, taking a seat next to Sasuke.

I was shocked at how easily we could actually get along. We all seemed even closer now, then when we were younger, although when we were younger I had an uncontrollable crush on Sasuke.

"Around noon." Naruto answered, pushing an already opened Pepsi can in my direction.

Smiling I took a small sip of it.

"Why does she always want to shop?" I asked them, leaning my head against Sasuke's shoulder.

Even though I'd grown over the time that I'd been gone, I was still shorter then all of my teammates. Yes, I had grown height wise, but so had they.

"She's a shop-alcoholic. Shouldn't you go back to bed if your this tired still?" Sasuke asked, his voice slightly amused.

"Probably. Wake me up when she gets here."

Standing up, I took my Pepsi with me and headed up towards my bedroom. The previous night I'd been up late talking to my friends in Suna. I haven't seen Temari or Gaara in so long. They'd called me late last night, so naturally I was up till like five in the morning chatting with them.

**That Afternoon......**

I groaned as Ino threw dress after dress over the top of the changing room. She was trying to find the perfect outfit for me to wear. It was impossible to explain to her that it doesn't really matter what I wear, as long I'm there. She'd made it a formal event at the house where I'm currently living now.

_I can't believe I'm wearing this._

I stepped out from the changing room wearing a tight white dress. The strap halter top showed off my body, as Ino had told me. It fanned out ever so slightly mid-thigh. I wore matching white heels.

"I like that. It's the best dress I've seen you in yet." Ino said calmly.

"Then lets get going so that you can get ready, since I already am."

We went up to the counter and I paid the cashier clerk. The dress in shoes in there proper bag, I quickly ditched Ino to go home and get emotionally ready to see everyone. Even though I'd seen most of them, it had been separately and without overwhelming standers.


	4. You Can't Rid Yourself Of Love

**At The Party.....**

Sasuke sat on my bed, in my bedroom, waiting for me, while mumbling inaudible words. He was told to make sure that I don't try and skip out of my own party after buying such a beautiful dress.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I adjusted the straps and found Sasuke starring at my now curly/wavy hair (Taylor Swift style). I proudly wore my new necklace and anklet, which was making Sasuke overjoyed.

"Ready to go?" he asked, standing up.

He wore a pair of blue jeans and a black button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

_I've got to admit, you do clean up nice Uchiha._

Sighing, I sadly nodded.

"Don't be so upset, it's in your honor."

"Honor, smonor. I don't like these huge loud gatherings.

We went downstairs together and I was surprised to see that everyone was dancing and enjoying themselves. Naruto had his arm around Hinata's shoulders. Ino was sitting happily on Shikamaru's lap, whispering in his ear, or what appeared to be whispering anyway.

Everyone appeared to be paired up, which made that old annoying feeling return to the pit of my stomach. I felt alone, in a room full of people, even though they all were here to see ME.

"Let's get you in the middle." Sasuke said, pushing me away from him and into the center of attention suddenly.

Glaring at him, I quickly became surrounded by my former friends.

**Later That Night, At Around One In The Morning......**

Leaning against the railing on my balcony, I starred out into the field that was before my eyes.

A field of blooming Cherry Blossom Trees were planted beautifully. They even appeared to be sparkling in the moon light which I was bathing in alone. The silence was very calming, unlike the party downstairs, which I'd brilliantly escaped from with the help of a clone that is.

"You should be downstairs."

I heard the small gasp behind me. They'd been surprised that I knew they were there.

Soft music came to my ears as Sasuke came next to me, joining me in leaning against the railing.

"You should be downstairs too, ya know."

I rolled my eyes and turned my head to look at him.

"Why are you here? I thought you were enjoying yourself downstairs."

He turned his head toward me and smiled.

"I only agreed to the party because I wanted to be around you. I'd really missed you while you were gone.... and..... I think that some part of me wants to make sure that you don't try and leave again."

Dropping my guard completely now, I grabbed his hand, pulling Sasuke from where he leaned.

_I'll regret this later probably, but what the heck, why not take advantage of my options._

"Dance with me? Please?"

He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me in a close hug to his body while we swayed gently to the music from my ipod, which was what the soft slow music was coming from.

There were no words that could describe the beautiful seen before Kakashi's eyes. He saw his two ex-students swaying to the sound of the music. The moon light bathed them in a soft white glow, giving Sakura the appearance of a beautiful angel.

**Later That Morning......**

_What's that smell? It doesn't smell like my bed does._

Turning slightly, I heard a soft moan that wasn't my own. Looking up, I found Sasuke sleeping lightly. It wasn't connecting with me that I was still in his iron grasp from last night when they were dance.

_I must have really been to tired to let myself fall asleep in Sasuke's arms. What was I thinking?!_

"Sakura, are you okay? Are you cold?"

Smiling up at him, I noticed that he brought me to my bed, but not once did he let me lay on the bed. I had slept the entire time on his chest. I was also wrapped up in his black shirt that he'd been wearing the previous night.

"I'm perfectly fine, but could I change into some more comfier clothes?"

His lip pouted slightly, but he released me.

_Why is my heart pounding so fast? I've got this strange feeling coming over me._

Shaking it off for the moment, I grabbed a white tank-top and my black pajama pants that had little golden stars all over them.

I quickly changed and when I came into my bedroom, I found Sasuke changed into a pair of dark blue plaid flannel pants and no shirt. I practically started drooling when I looked at him, his rock hard abs and chest were just so.... indescribable.

"Welcome back," he whispered into my ear once I laid down on the bed.

Shivering slightly, he immediately grabbed me around the waist and pulled me onto his rock hard chest. A smirk was on his lips as I starred at his soft face, unsure of what to do or say.

_NO!!! I CAN'T BE FALLING FOR HIM AGAIN! I RID MYSELF OF THESE STUPID FEELINGS YEARS AGO!_

"You should sleep. You're looking really tired."

Not wanting to argue with him, I just nodded and laid my head down on his chest and closed my eyes. It was quite comforting to be this close to him, his clone, just him in general was enough to throw my proper composed thoughts right out the window.

Sasuke noticed that his little angel had drifted off to sleep, a small smile playing on her lips as she gently breathed.

He'd found it hard to believe that this precious girl could possible be the Sakura that he knew so many years ago. The girl that had once become his fan girl and joined his team for the first time. Sakura really had changed over the three years, that was quite clear to everyone. But what he didn't understand was her herself, how she could stay so happy and calm ninety-nine percent of the time, even when she was ready to kill somebody.

**Later That Day......**

"Hey sleepy head, glad to see you awake finally."

I looked up and smiled at Sasuke, he looked really cute with his bed head.

What am I thinking?! AAAAAH!!!! I'm falling for this stupid Uchiha!!

He was chuckling quietly.

"What's so funny?"

"You'll find out in a minute."

Frowning slightly, I watched him move closer to my face until instantly my lips were captured in a powerful, but gentle real first kiss. Sasuke carefully flipped us over, not breaking the kiss, so that he could have more of the control.

_OMG!!_

Closing my eyes, I realized that I didn't care anymore because if my heart was really this happy with Sasuke Uchiha, then I would let it be happy. Smiling into the kiss I found myself living in the passion of the kiss, my body was pressed tightly against his muscular body, while our lips together to the beat of the still playing music (from the ipod).

Sasuke's hand had crawled its way up to the back of my neck, when my were running through his hair, keeping him close. He lightly stroked the nape of my neck, sending shivers through my entire body. The both of us were so absorbed in the sensuality of the kiss that I accidentally moaned softly. This made the two of us back away, needing air as well.

Smiling sheepishly, I wrapped my arms around his neck with MY iron hold and didn't let go.

"Sakura...."

_Oh no. He's going to tell me something horrible. I'll cry if he does this to me..... again._

"Sakura, after you left, I only just started to realize how I had feelings for you. Stronger then I've ever had for anyone..... and..... I believe that's why I continued to push myself to find you when you left. It hurt to even think of me not being there to protect you, even though I knew you didn't really need to be protected."

_Or something very beautiful._

I lifted my head up from his chest, my eyes had become glassy as he talked.

"It hurt every day, knowing that you were out there alone. That's why, I want to be with you forever. My feelings for you are a burning desire, I'm falling in love with you, Sakura Haruno. Would you please be my girlfriend?"

A tear slipped down my cheek, I smiled warmly at him.

_Those feelings from before never died, they'd just been buried deep down, Afraid to get themselves hurt again._

"Yes, Sasuke Uchiha, I'll be your girlfriend."

He kissed me again and smiled proudly at me.

"Then I've got one more thing for you."

He pulled out a small silver ring from his pants pocket and held it up for me to see. It had Uchiha written on it with a Uchiha fan on either side of the name.

"It's beautiful, thank you."

Letting my left hand lower to his hand, he slipped it onto my finger, perfect fit. I noticed that he wore a similar ring that had Haruno written on it with the two circle's on either side of my last name.

We laid there, both my arms were around his neck again, and his around my waist. It was perfect until Naruto started banging on my bedroom door, shouting at me to get up already.

"Should we go downstairs?" I asked him quietly.

"Yeah lets go."

He got up and I stayed there hanging from his neck.

"I promise that I wont leave you." he whispered, trying to reassure me already.

"I know, but my arms wont let go."

Smiling, he turned me so that I was clinging to him from behind. I got onto his back and locked my legs tightly around his waist.

Laughing we went downstairs, ready to see a very shocked Naruto.


	5. Learned Jutsu's and Trips to Suna

Sasuke walked into the kitcthen, smiling proudly with me on his back, my head resting on his shoulder.

_Wait for it._

"What happened?! When need to hurry! To the hospital! Come on, lets go!!" Naruto shouted.

"You're really loud still, can't you be quiet?"

He starred at me, his mouth down to the floor. gaping at the two of us.

"Seriously, she's just resting, chill Naruto."

Giggling quietly, I let my legs fall to the floor and stood up.

"I've got to go to the training field today. I need to get back into practicing."

Sasuke looked to Naruto before either of them said anything.

"Actually, she's right. We've all got to go to the training grounds. Tsunade is waiting for us there in an hour. She'd like to give us our new mission."

Kakashi was walking into the kitchen while eating a pop tart.

"So, that means we've got a mission to do?" I asked hopeful.

He nodded warily at my excitement.

"It's just a escort mission to Suna, nothing to hard." he replied.

I growled.

"I hate escort missions. There annoying and easy."

Sasuke laughed and wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Can't be that bad, at least you're not going alone."

"Yeah....."

_But that doesn't mean that I can't hate them!_

**At The Training Grounds......**

I sat on the ground in Sasuke's lap. He was playing with my hair happily while we waited for Naruto and Kakashi to show up.

I'd changed back into my black uniform before we'd left, but instead of changing my hair and eyes to there blue color, I kept them there normal and natural color. This surprised Sasuke a little, but not to much that it would mess up with his ability to fight if necessary.

"There almost here." I whispered, making him drop the strand of hair that he held between his fingers.

Three minutes passed at there they stood, all three of the people that we'd been waiting for.

"Hello Tsunade-sama," I said politely, standing up.

She smiled warmly at me, but glared at Naruto, who was slurping on a Popsicle.

"Well, I'm sure that you heard of you mission from Kakashi, but I'd like to make sure that you understand that it's just an escort mission."

Nodding, she smiled again at us.

"Then you're to escort Team Guy to Suna."

My eyes grew wide.

"You mean Rock Lee, Ten-Ten, and Neji?" I asked curiously.

Everyone nodded.

"Then lets go, we should probably hurry."

Sasuke laid his arms over the top of my shoulders and we headed towards the gates. A low growl came from Naruto, making me want to mess with him a little bit more.

I gently rubbed Sasuke's back with my left hand, letting the silver ring sparkle in the sunlight. There was a small gasp from him before anyone else started following us.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked innocently, resting my arm on Sasuke's waist.

Noticing that I was just playing around with Naruto, Sasuke joined in with some of the fun.

He waved backwards at them, letting his ring sparkle too.

"See you in a bit then."

**With Naruto, Tsunade, and Kakashi......**

The three starred at one another confused.

"When did that happen?" Kakashi asked confused.

"Yesterday, while we were still partying, they'd disappear upstairs together. I didn't think much of it then." Naruto answered.

Tsunade burst out laughing.

"Sakura liked Sasuke since she was a beginning ninja, does it surprise you that she still had them feelings?" Tsunade asked, still laughing at the boys dumbfounded expressions.

"But Sasuke...."

Kakashi cut off Naruto, getting what Hokage-sama was saying.

"Sasuke only realized that he was in love with Sakura AFTER she left. Remember how he'd been so anxious to get back and see her? Just like you and Hinata."

Naruto looked to Tsunade, to make sure that Kakashi was right.

"Wow, who'd have thought that the two of them would fall in love with each other."

**At The Gate.......**

Sasuke had to stop back at the house to get an extra scroll that he'd forgotten. Leaving me a alone for a few minutes, which was slightly nice, since I'm still used to being alone 24-7.

"SAKURA-CHAN!!"

I froze where I was standing. That voice, that annoying voice, was shouting at me and waving like a complete and total lunatic.

_Please! Oh please don't let him act like he did before I left._

Sighing, I unfroze my feet and continued to walk towards the awaiting team.

"Sakura-chan, I love you with everything in my heart! Be my girlfriend, be my wife! Please bear my children!"

Rock Lee was down on one knee, a huge rock in his hand.

"Wah- wah- wah...."

I starred at him absently.

_What do you say to something like this again? Um...... NO!!!_

He stood up and blew his trade mark hearts at me. I still couldn't move from my spot.

"She's already spoken for."

Sasuke was standing in front of me and popped all the stupid little hearts that were in front of me, making a funny popping sound.

"You just killed my proposals of love!!" Lee shouted angrily.

Smiling, I pulled my mask down and stuck my tongue out at him.

"He's right, I'm already spoken for."

Holding up my hand, I let him see the ring that I was proudly wearing.

"But-"

Lee started crying (anime style) and backed away from the both of us.

"So you're going to be our escorts for the trip to Suna?" Guy-Sensei asked.

"Yes and we can leave as soon as the rest of the team gets here." Sasuke answered.

Neji and Ten-Ten were starring at us.

"Hello to the both of you." I said smiling.

Ten-Ten smiled happily and waved. Neji just nodded in my direction.

_Apparently he's not pleased with the idea of an escort._

"Were here lets get going."

I glanced over my shoulder to see Kakashi and Naruto walking up. They waved and kept walking, letting me and Sasuke take up the rear.

**An Hour Later.....**

"Shadow Creatures, inspect the perimeter, tell me if anything is suspicious."

The creatures raced off in a bunch of different directions at a speed much faster then any ninja has ever seen before. They didn't surprise Sakura though, since the shadow creatures could only go as fast as herself.

_There, now Kakashi can relax somewhat and stop worrying like he is._

"That was pretty cool, Sakura-chan." Naruto said, now walking on my other side.

"Thank you."

He was silent for a moment, like always he's never quiet.

"Have you been to Suna recently? Did you know that Gaara became-"

"The Kazekage? Yes, I was there the whole time. I saw you there, but you never saw me. I was sitting a top the overlooking Kazekage tower. Gaara knew the entire time that I was there, why do you think that whenever you came to visit him he was always a little bit more on edge?"

"YOU WERE THERE?!? AND WE DIDN'T SENSE YOU?!?!"

Both boys were starring at me in utter disbelief.. Smiling I nodded happily.

"I practiced masking my chakra all the time, so that I could sneak up on people easier during a battle. It's quiet easy now."

"I saw you there."

My head shot up to stare at Neji who had finally spoken to someone other then Ten-Ten.

"Yeah, I know. You were the only Konoha member to see me though."

"That really says a lot about our ninja, doesn't it?" I laughed quietly.

Our little joyful mood quickly darkened when one of my creatures ran up in front of me. There were upcoming Rouge Ninja, from the sound no doubt, wanting to get into a good fight with us. Saying something about wanting to get even with someone at Konoha, probably Tsunade.

"Well, Kakashi, I think we're going to have some unwanted company here in about five minutes. You fighting or are you going with them?"

He starred at me curiously. I broke our starring contest only to let myself smile at him hopeful.

"Please! I really really really need to stretch my muscles and fight. I can do it, three people isn't really that much." I pleaded at him.

Kakashi shook his head no.

"Ah come on! I've dealt with more ninja at a time then you ever have." I argued.

My shadow creature hissed at him.

"Fine, but if I believe that your in trouble we wont hesitate to help you."

Nodding, I stepped in front of everyone and slipped on my black gloves and hid my necklace safely under my shirt.

Finally, I can get some steam off my chest.

The three ninja appeared before me and a smile came to there faces.

"Get out of our way little girl." said one.

"We don't want such a pretty girl to get hurt." another said.

My eye twitched slightly.

"Please move you little weakling."

He tried to shove me out of the way, but I caught his hand and threw him back into a tree, leaving him immobile for a bit.

"Is this death or prisoner?" I called to Kakashi before I fought them.

"Death." he answered warily.

Smiling evilly, I did a few quick hand signs and there was a huge fireball escaping my lips.

"Grand Fire Ball Technique!" I heard Naruto whisper.

They dodged it easily, just like I'd intended them on doing. This gave me the opening to get them both in one shot.

"Chidogon!" (see chp. 2 if forgotten the meaning of this attack)

Both my hands were held down at my sides. A crackling pink ball of lightening and swirling venomous chakra in each hand.

Running forward, I easily threw both my hands through the two ninja's chests killing them instantly. Which only left the other one, which was now on his feet starring at me.

Piece of cake, maybe I can use Gaara's little present this time. I'd like to give it a shot.

Reaching into my pouch, I pulled out a miniature version of Gaara's gourd that held his sand. Uncorking it, I set it down on the ground, so that I could do a few quick hand signs before using it.

"Gaara Style! Sand Manipulation Jutsu!" (don't laugh, i like to make up jutsu's!)

It attacked at the ninja and wrapped around his feet tightly, holding him in place.

"Who were you after to kill?" I asked him, tilting my head to the side slightly.

"The Spirit Ninja and Hokage."

I heard Sasuke growl at him.

"Well, doesn't look like you did a very good job, since you see, I AM the Spirit Ninja and I kill every target."

Still keeping the sand there to hold him still, I did strange hand signs, ones that I learned from Shino's cousin, a ninja that bases her power off of poison attacks. She'd taught it to me when I'd been hiding out in her bedroom, waiting for it to get dark so that I could leave Konoha again.

"Kiss of Death."

Lowering my mask, I kissed him gently on the lips for less then a second and leaned away to watch him slowly die. The poison was quick, stopping the heart painlessly and then knocking him out. It wasn't cure able either so there was no way of anyone saving him.

"There! See Kakashi, I told you that I can do it!"

He starred at me strangely, but smiled behind his mask. Smiling back, I had the sand go back into the gourd. I re-corked it an then hooked it to my belt.

"How can you do so many different elemental techniques?!" Neji and Ten-Ten asked together once we'd cleared away the bodies.

I shrugged and spit onto the ground, wiping off my mouth.

"Learned from my family. I did a Jutsu that only a Haruno can perform, lets me do any kind of Jutsu I want and master it."

Neji tried to understand, but was still confused.

"Okay, you know how I controlled the sand?"

Every was now listening and nodded.

"I watched Gaara do that when I was in Suna. He taught it to me and I mastered it very quickly. So it would be more like mastering by sight."

Neji got it, like Kakashi, and like Sasuke.

"So it's like being a copy ninja without actually having to have a Sharigon." Kakashi said, intrigued that that was what I was trying to explain.

I nodded.

"Oh, now I get it." Naruto said happily.

I rolled my eyes and nodded happily.

"Well that's pretty cool." Sasuke said, kissing me on the head.

Smiling up at him, I noticed that he'd snaked his arm around my waist. Nodding, I leaned up and kissed his cheek.

It was starting to get dark, but I knew that we wouldn't stop until we were farther along the journey.

"Sakura...."

I looked at Sasuke to see him coming towards me for a kiss.

_Wait! Not yet! The poison could still be on my lips!_

I held my hand up and stopped him biting my lip.

"Sorry! I might still have poison on my lips and I don't want to kill you!" I said defensively.

He laughed happily and kissed my head again.

"I understand, thanks for not wanting to kill me." he laughed.

Smiling at him, I tightly hugged him before letting my arm stay tightly around his waist, like his was around mine.


	6. Suna and The Candy Land Dilemma

**The Next Day At Suna.....**

I walked in last with Sasuke. We hadn't run into any more trouble along the way thankfully, but that didn't mean that we wouldn't run into trouble while trying to get into this place.

"Kakashi let me talk to the guards please!" I said, quickly stopping him before he said anything stupid to them.

Standing in front of the two guards, I smiled politely at them.

"We are here to speak with the Kazakage, Gaara. Please let me and my friends through."

They looked to one another before facing me again.

"Who would you be, you do not look familiar to us."

"Why I am the Spirit Ninja of Konoha, I just changed back to my normal look. Please let us through."

They nodded and I led my group into the village and towards the Kazakage Tower. It was nice to be here again, since I'd spent a good portion of my time here to help train the medic-nin during the past three years. That was when Gaara had taught me some of his sand tricks and when I'd gotten to learn some of Temari's fan maneuvers.

"How'd you know what to say, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"I'd spent a lot of my time here, when I was trying to hid my scent from Akamaru or Kakashi's dogs, since you'd go out about ever two weeks to search for any trace of me."

Giggling quietly, I shook my head and told Sasuke that I'd tell him about it later.

"Here we are, lets go in."

This time I let Team Guy lead the way up the steps into the office, where Gaara was expecting them so patiently.

"Hello, it's nice of you to come on such short notice." Gaara said politely look right at the team before him.

My team was leaning against the wall lazily, waiting for payment before being able to leave. Although, I was going to try and convince them to stay for one night so that I could catch up with the sand siblings.

_Wonder what he needed them for. Maybe they'll need our help._

"Sakura, is that you?"

Gaara was starring right at me, his voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's me."

He smiled warmly at me.

"Nice to see you again. Are you back with your village again or do you need to stay here a night?"

His voice sounded slightly hopeful, Sasuke seemed to notice this too, because he placed his arm across my shoulders.

"Yeah, I went back. Tsunade and I figured that I'd tormented them long enough. But could we still stay and catch up with you guys?"

"Sure, we've got quite enough room for you to stay for a night or two."

Smiling, I thanked him happily. Kakashi glared at me, Naruto did the same, but Sasuke was quiet. He didn't seem to really mind spending the night, or so it would have appeared.

"See you in a bit, Gaara-kun." I called, leaving the room with my team.

I felt Sasuke's arm tighten around me when I turned around to leave.

"So you spent some time here? Sounds like a lot of time with Gaara-_kun_." Naruto teased.

Turning my head towards him, I gave him the Uchiha Death Glare, Sakura style. His face turned stone white with that and he was quiet.

"Yes, this was the first place I came after leaving Konoha. I knew that you wouldn't be able to track my sent through the sand, but I had to wait it out and make sure that you wouldn't come this far. Gaara-kun would train with me whenever he could to help me control my emotions and get stronger."

Kakashi was starring at me in disbelief.

"Why would he want to help you? You couldn't have been that strong."

I glared at him.

"I was after he actually helped me. Every time he had a chance we'd train. It was a double deal, I helped the medic-nin, he help the Spirit Ninja. Unlike my perverted Sensei, my loudmouth friend, or emo boy that wouldn't even of helping me."

The three boys watched me warily.

"I'm not perverted!"

"I'm not loud!"

"I'm not emo!"

I smiled sweetly at Sasuke.

"I know that your not emo anymore, but you were pretty much three years ago. Kakashi, you're still reading that stupid orange book, and Naruto you've always been loud no matter what."

He crossed his arms and turned his head away like a little kid would have done. Smiling, I took Sasuke's hand and led them all out of the tower and down the street towards a small shop.

**After Shopping......**

Kakashi groaned at me when we headed towards the Sand Siblings house. He was carrying a bag of food.

"Shut up Kakashi. It's not to much farther so just chill out."

Sasuke had his arm happily across my shoulders, he was smiling proudly at me.

"I hope you've got a plan if you wanted us to get swim suits." Sasuke laughed.

Nodding, I stretched to my tip toes and kissed him on the cheek through my mask.

_This is going to be one interesting night. Hope Temari's home._

Turning down a side street, I saw the big white house, house is such a bad description though. Mansion would be better to describe the big house for the three siblings.

"We're here, let go inside."

Opening the door, we let ourselves in, taking off out sandals. As expected, a large puppet came for us, a defense mechanism when intruders entered the house. Quickly I uncorked my sand gourd.

"Gaara Style! Sand Manipulation Jutsu!"

Sand quickly flew above us, blocking the attack easily. I continued to block the attacks until Kankuro saw that it was me standing there.

"Little sister!" he shouted with excitement, jumping over the railing and hugging me tightly.

"Hello, it's nice to see you again too." I laughed, trying to make him let me go.

He set me down and smiled at the sand that was hovering around me slightly.

"I see that you like Gaara's graduation present."

I bit my lip and turned to face my team.

"Graduation? What kind of graduation did you have?" Kakashi asked, his eye shifting between me and Kankuro.

"Yeah..... well..... you see..... when I was here...... Tsunade gave Gaara orders to train me...... you know..... until I reached.... Kakashi's level......"

Ducking behind Sasuke, I heard Naruto growl evilly at me.

"So you're stronger then even me?"

I thought about that for a moment.

"Yeah, probably. But we've never gone into a full on headfirst battle till the death either. Most of my attacks are for killing."

Smiling I heard a scream from one of the upper levels.

"Heheh, well, guess she home."

Temari was probably angry with something that Kankuro had done to her when they were out. I was used to them, but Naruto looked like he was freaking out slightly, That was only because when I was mad I'd hit him, so he's probably thinking that she'd do the same thing too.

"Nice to see you, Temari!" I called towards the ceiling.

"Sakura-chan!!! You're back!!!" she screamed happily, running into sight.

I sprinted up the stairs and we hugged each other happily.

**That Evening......**

I sat on the floor with Sasuke and Temari, she'd decided that she wanted to play Candy Land (yes, its a childish but fun game, so what).

"Come on! Why can't I move anywhere?!" she complained.

Temari was stuck on the green space and could find a purple card in the deck and it was driving her crazy.

"Just calm down and let me shuffle the deck, I'm sure that you'll get it sooner or later." I said happily, still by Jolly Gumdrop.

Sasuke was being very quiet. Setting the cards down, I turned around in his lap so that I was facing him, a smile pulling at my lips.

"Are you sad, Sasuke-kun?" I asked, letting my lower lip jut out into a pouting face.

He bit his lip a smile tugging at his lips. He glanced around me to make sure that Temari was busy, trying to find a purple card that she so desperately wanted, since she hates losing.

"How could I be sad? You make me happier then ever."

He slipped his fingers over my mask and pulled it down, revealing soft pink lips. Sasuke was smirking at the blush that had crept it's way onto my face, he leaned forward, kissing my neck, a small sigh escaped my lips. He continued to lead butterfly kisses up to my lips, where he stopped at starred into my eyes. Both of our breathing was accelerated slightly as we leaned in to kiss.

Shutting my eyes, I expected to meet soft lips, but instead I came face to face with a wall of rock hard sand.

"AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!"

I let myself fall back onto the carpeted floor, glaring at Gaara who was standing in the doorway watching us. You could hear Kakashi and Naruto laughing behind him in the hallway.

"Why do you have to been like that??" I complained, still laying on the floor.

A smile came to Gaara's face as I continued to glare at him.

"Because it was just to funny. Did you see the look on your faced?" Naruto asked, laughing his head off.

"NARUTO!!!!!"

**Twenty Minutes Later.....**

I sat there on there couch healing up Naruto after I beat the snot out of him. He'd asked Gaara to do him this favor when he got here, which didn't make me to pleased with Gaara, but I wasn't about to go and attack him.

"Did you really have to hurt me?" Naruto whined.

"Yeah, since you stopped me and Sasuke."

Sasuke chuckled quietly.

"It's getting dark out, don't you think that we should probably head to bed?" Kakashi asked, directing his statement to our team.

"Alright, come on lets go."

I gestured towards Gaara to follow us.

"Here, Kakashi and Naruto, this will be your room. Sasuke and Sakura, its this one."

I waited till Naruto and Kakashi were gone before I turned to Gaara, he already seemed to know what I was thinking though.

"Yes, the pools open. You can go swimming."

"Thank you."

I hugged him then went into the bedroom with Sasuke. He had that same glint in his eye that he had earlier.

Smiling, I jumped into the air and wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. Sasuke carried me to the wall and kept my back to it while he pressed himself closer to me. Our lips locked and quickly a battle was being made. His tongue licked my bottom lip, begging for entrance, which I granted happily.

It quickly explored my wet cavern and I moaned in pressure when his tongue attacked my own. Smiling into the kiss, I let mine dance with his until I gave up, letting him massage mine.

Sasuke pulled away, needing air, like me. I laid my head down on his shoulder while he sat down on the bed.

"I love you Sakura, more then my entire life."

"I love you too, Sasuke-kun."

I kissed his neck and continued to smile into his shoulder.

"Do you want to go swimming? It's dark out."

We smiled at each other slyly and went to go get our swim-suits.

_I've got this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, but who'd let something as stupid as that ruin your night with a hot an sexy Sasuke-kun._

Smirking to myself, I pulled out a white bikini which I'd bought earlier, and had the Uchiha symbol placed onto them without Sasuke's knowing of course. Why not give him a little surprise right.

"I'll meet you in the pool Sakura." Sasuke said before closing the door to our bedroom.


	7. Traveling and Training

**In The Pool.....**

Sasuke was waiting in the water quietly, he swam a few laps and was now growing quiet impatient about how long I was taking.

"Sasuke-kuuuuunnn......" I cooed, standing next to the pool.

(Sasuke's point of view)

When I turned around to see Sakura standing there, I wasn't expecting to have my breath taken away so easily buy something so simple. Not that she's not the most beautiful person ever, but now she was like beautiful + + + + + (if you get what i mean).

"Sakura....."

The moon light behind her left a soft glow all over her magnificent skin. Her hair sparkled gently in the moonlight, but it was her eyes that had finally caught my attention, they held an emotion that I'd never seen before.

"You look beautiful....."

She smiled evilly and took a few steps back from the water. Then she dove in, heading straight towards me like a torpedo. Gulping, I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her above the water so that she could breath.

"I'm all wet," she giggled, kissing my nose.

I chuckled and wrapped my arms around her small waist. Making her squeal slightly. She took advantage of our position and pressed her body tightly to mine, locking her lips to mine.

It took me a minute to regain control, but Sakura didn't seem to be letting that happen because she'd already gotten us under the water, her still controlling me in a sense.

Smiling, I let us resurface, but only long enough for air because I now had control.

_I've got a feeling that this is going to not be a restful night for either of us._

Kissing her back I let our tongues dance together happily.

**The Next Morning........ (heheheheh, sorry but i so don't do lemons)**

I slowly opened my eyes to the sound of soft breathing next to me. The previous night had been a little fuzzy, moving to fast for me to really remember what had happened.

"Good morning."

Turning in the bed, I starred into Sasuke's beautiful onyx eyes, and that was when I realized that I was NOT wearing any pajamas. Blushing, I closed my eyes to let myself drift back to sleep.

"We should get dressed and head downstairs." Sasuke said, standing up.

Nodding in agreement, I got up as well and headed for my clothes that laid on the ground.

"I love you, Sakura, don't ever forget that."

I kissed his cheek and took his hand, leading him downstairs where our team was awaiting us to join so that we could journey back home.

"Good morning you two," Kakashi said quietly, "Are you ready to leave for home?"

I smiled up at Sasuke and then nodded towards Kakashi.

"Alright, say your goodbyes and we'll head out."

Rubbing my eyes, I went upstairs and said goodbye to the sand siblings, then headed out of Suna with my team. This time we jumped tree branch to tree branch, this was much faster and I really wanted to get back so that I could practice with my new sand that Gaara had given me.

**Back In Konoha...... (not Sakura's P.O.V. obviously)**

The group of ninja stopped inside the gates of Konoha, Sakura sleeping peacefully on Sasuke's back. They'd run into some more rogue ninja on the way back and Sakura'd taken the all out happily, pleased that they'd finally began to trust in her and her strength.

"Wow, she's really out." Kakashi commented, checking to see if she has a fever.

There wasn't one obviously, since being a medic-nin keeps her from ever getting an extensive sickness.

"Let's hurry up and report to Tsunade," Naruto said.

"I'll talk with her tomorrow, I'm going to get Sakura into a nice warm bed."

With that Sasuke leapt off towards the Uchiha district, his pink haired beauty sleeping as peacefully as an angel.

"Wow, just wow. He's gone soft." Naruto mumbled, walking with Kakashi to the Hokage Tower.

Sasuke gently laid Sakura down on the bed and tried to wake her. He wanted her to get changed out of her bloody ninja uniform.

"Come on Sakura, you need to change clothes."

She groaned and rolled over, her arms wrapping around Sasuke's neck while she was still asleep.

"If you don't wake up, you'll regret it."

Sakura tightened her grip around Sasuke and tried to reach behind her for a kunai that was in her pack. He chuckled when her hand patted around aimlessly for her missing pack.

"You're mean." she whispered, sitting up.

I watched her as she tiredly grabbed a pair of underwear and a t-shirt from her drawer before stumbling into her bathroom.

Sasuke ducked down to his room to and changed into his flannel pants and hurried back upstairs.

"Can I go back to sleep?" Sakura asked tiredly, she was leaning against the doorframe of her bathroom.

"Yeah, lay back down." I cooed, sitting on her bed.

Sasuke watched as she stumbled onto the bed, her eyes weren't even open when she flopped onto the bed. He carefully wrapped his arms around Sakura's waist and pulled her against his chest. Gently brushing her soft pink hair to the side he kissed her forehead.

**The Next Day.......**

I sat up and looked at Sasuke who was asleep next to me happily, smiling in his sleep.

_Guess I'll just have to think of a substitute._

Just before I could make my hand signs, Sasuke's hands grabbed mine and pulled me onto his chest.

"Don't even think it, pinky." he teased, kissing my nose.

"But Sasuke-kun, I wanted to go out and train....."

Pouting at him, I watched as he fought against himself.

"Train with me...... pretty please......."

Batting my eye lashes at him, I pressed my lips to his and then slipped from his grasp laughing.

"That's mean!" he groaned, sitting up on the bed.

_Oh...... my...... gawd.......he's so freakin' hot!!!_

Grabbing a pair of soffee shorts and a tank-top, I quickly changed and returned to see that Sasuke had also changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. There was a small smile tugging at his lips as he tried to look mischievous.

"Aw, would you like to train with me? Pwwwiiityyy pweeaassseee (pretty please) !!!! Practice with me!"

He burst out laughing and grabbed me into a tight hug. I returned it, laughing along with him. We went downstairs together and each of us grabbed a bottle of water before leaving towards the practice fields for a day of practicing.

**After Practicing......**

I was sprawled out on the grass, panting heavily. At some point during our practice I'd stripped off my shirt so that I was just wearing a bright green sports bra. Sasuke wasn't wearing his shirt either.

"I think were done." Sasuke said, laughing slightly.

"Ya think?" I asked him, pushing myself up to my feet.

"I know I've got one more Jutsu in me."

I stumbled next to the stream and did a few quick hand signs.

"Water Style! Water Dragon Jutsu!"

The water in dragon form knocked out a few trees then disappeared.

"There a-all d-done."

I stumbled slightly as I walked back over to Sasuke.

"Sakura? You don't look so good."

She'd been practicing hard, using about 96% of her chakra in just a simple practice.

"Hey!"

Everything went very dark suddenly.

"Shit!"

I lunged forward and quickly caught Sakura before she hit the ground.

"Why did you have to use so much of your chakra?"

Shaking my head, I carried her back to the house so that she could get some rest in a soft bed.

"Naruto, get the door!" Sasuke shouted.

There was a loud stumbling sound, followed by a crash, then the door opened quickly.

"Sasuke-teme!"

"Shut up, dobe. She's out cold."

"Humph, servers her right. What she do?"

Sasuke was walking out of the kitchen and towards the stairs.

"She practiced her ass off. I've never seen anyone try so hard to master that many Jutsu's. Sakura's trying harder then you."

And with that I went upstairs with my unconscious angel in my arms.

* * *

_What do you think?  
__Any ideas?  
__Should I finish off with one more chapter or keep it going a little more?  
__like have something attack Konoha or something.  
__what do ya think?  
__Rate & Review please!_

_pepsilover919  
__:o)_


	8. Tricking Sakura

_Ok. So I decided that I wouldn't end the story so soon. So I changed it up to make the story longer. So that this way it can add up to an even BETTER ending then it had before. R&R please! :oD_

* * *

**.......In Sakura's Bedroom.......**

"Sasuke, what did you mean by 'she practiced her ass off. I've never seen anyone try so hard to master so many Jutsu's. Sakura's trying harder then even you.' " Naruto asked quietly, leaning against the door frame of Sakura's bedroom door.

"She's trying to be a better ninja and that means that she's got to master as many things as she can, I guess. She said something about protecting the ones that she loves, but she's putting her body through strenuous training to become even stronger." Sasuke answered.

He was headed towards the bathroom, going to bath Sakura off before putting her to bed when Naruto stopped him.

"Want me to call Ino-chan or Hinata-chan? So that they can get her cleaned up?"

"Why? It probably wouldn't bother her in the least. It's not like I've never seem her before Naruto."

Naruto was quiet, starring at Sasuke, trying to comprehend what he meant by that. But then the light bulb came on and..... and..... lets just say the face was indescribable.

"You and Sakura?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Together?"

He nodded again.

"So it's official then?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at how stupid he was being, and nodded.

"When are you going to ask her."

That question took Sasuke by surprise.

"I'm not sure, I don't know how she feels about that subject. I mean, she's just gotten back a few weeks ago. Who know what she wants." Sasuke answered.

In her sleep, Sakura had managed to wrap her arms around Sasuke's waist, holding him tightly.

"Sasuke......kun...... don't leave...... me......"

Both boys smirked and Naruto let Sasuke into the bathroom.

**.......Three Days Later......**

I slowly sat up, my eyes still drooped down somewhat. It felt like I'd been asleep for only a few hours.

_I wonder where Sasuke is...... how'd I get in my room?_

Stumbling out the door and down the stairs, I went into the kitchen. Naruto was sitting at the table eating a bowl of ramen peacefully. Not once did he look up from the scroll he was reading.

"He's out training with Kakashi." Naruto muttered, a smirk on his face as I looked out the window.

"How did you...... never mind..... what are you reading?"

Shaking my head, I sat down at the table as well.

"Scroll. Tsunade-sama wanted me to look over the next mission scroll..... for us."

He looked up when I didn't respond.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing at all. What kind of mission?"

Carefully listening, I could hear the slightest sound of birds.

"A rescue mission. The daughter of a very wealth man has been kidnapped and is being help captive somewhere in the Village Hidden in the Mist."

I cringed inwardly, remembering my last trip there. I'd been a Genin with the team.

"When do we leave?"

That bird sound is getting really close.

"Tonight."

I could feel my jaw drop down to the table, that chirping was right next to the house.

"Something wrong with tonight??" Naruto asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Hm... I'll tell you about it later."

"No. What the hell is wrong?" Naruto shouted, slamming his fists down on the table.

Glaring at Naruto, I jumped to my feet and ran outside.

"Let's move!"

Both of us ran down the narrow street, seeing the bright light of Chidori, I reached back for my non existent weapons pouch.

"Naruto, can I borrow a kunai?"

"Don't got any on me."

I growled and raced as fast as I could towards the practice fields, Kakashi and Sasuke were fighting forcefully.

In Kakashi's eyes I could tell that it wasn't just for training, they were really trying to hurt one another.

"STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Both men looked at me with anger in their eyes.

"You are the problem. With you back now everything is just so much harder for us!"

I could slowly feel tears start to well up in my eyes. I didn't say a single word to any of the guys there, even Naruto was speechless. I couldn't tell if he was in agreement or shock that they'd just shouted that at me after I'd just returned.

Snapping my fingers, I disappeared in a whirl of dark cherry blossom petals.

"If you didn't want me back, then say something." I muttered to myself.

**-------------+ IN THE TRAINING FIELD +-------------**

The three ninja standing there poofed and turned into rouge ninja from the mist. Evil smiles spread on there faces.

"That was easy." the one who was pretending to be Sasuke said.

"Extremely. It was so easy getting them three teammates away from the house too." said the one who'd been pretending to be Naruto.

"Now she'll take the mission as a solo and we can kill the girl and keep the princess all to ourselves." said the one who'd been pretending to be Kakashi.

**-------------+ WITH THE REAL TEAMMATES +-------------**

They quietly walked into the house, muttering that it'd be a phoney problem. Waist of time. At least they believed it to be a waist of time, until Sakura was no where to be found.

"You don't think that-"

Sasuke quickly cut Naruto off.

"No, she wouldn't do that just to get away. Tsunade will never except her if she left again."

"Hang on, where'd it go?"

Kakashi looked at Naruto like he was crazy.

"Where'd WHAT go?"

"The mission scroll that I'd left right her, next to.... OH MY GAWD! SHE'S DOING THE MISSION ALONE! IT'S AN S+ RANKED MISSION!!!"

Sasuke looked like he was about to have a heart attack upon hearing this. Yea, he knew that Sakura'd been on very dangerous missions, but on one like this she'd never really been alone for something this bad.

"Come on! She couldn't have gotten that far." Kakashi said, racing out the door, Naruto and Sasuke on either side of him.


	9. Too Easy

**-------------+ WITH SAKURA +-------------**

She jumped from branch to branch slowly, tears streaming from her eyes like rain from a storm cloud. Believing the words that had come from Sasuke's mouth, was breaking her heart into a million tiny pieces.

_What did I do to you Sasuke? If you didn't like me from the start, why did you play around with my head?_

Hearing leaves rustling behind her made Sakura quickly jump down and called out a few shadow creatures. Sakura had changed back to her normal Spirit Ninja outfit, since she wasn't back home in Konoha.

"That better not be Kakashi." she muttered, racing off.

Sakura didn't know that the other ninja back in Konoha had been tricking her, and were going to use her as bait to catch Naruto and Sasuke. The ninja had understood all to well that the three were extremely close and that Sasuke loved Sakura.

**-------------+ KAKASHI, NARUTO, and SASUKE +-------------**

The three had raced off with everything that they'd need for the mission. Now they were practically flying through the trees trying to catch up with Sakura.

"Oh My God! We need to hurry!"

"Shut up Naruto. She's going to be fine. You saw what she'd done with those ninja on the last mission." Kakashi said, trying to reassure Naruto.

Sasuke had remained silent the entire time.

_Why Sakura? Did I do something to you? I thought we loved each other...._

They'd heard the sound of somebody speeding up ahead of them, Sasuke quickly activated his Sharingon and so did Kakashi.

"That was her. She must have heard the leaves.... she's good." Naruto muttered, dipping into his chakra and moving even faster.

**-------------+ WITH SAKURA +-------------**

Sakura lunged out for a far branch, but her hand quickly dropped when she realized who was sitting on the branch.

"Well well well, look what we have here boys." said the ninja, smiling happily.

"Yup a ninja. Go figure on would be on the boarder of Konoha. What do you want?"

"Now don't get smart with me young lady, I am a superior to you." said the ninja, grabbing Sakura's arm tightly.

That's when Sakura felt it. The jolt from the ground ran up through the tree and her own body, and nobody else's.

"Something wrong, my darling?" asked the ninja holding Sakura's arm tightly.

"What did you just do to me?"

Sakura's vision only blurred slightly as she tried to fight whatever was trying to take over.

"Oh, you mean those?" he gestured to her ankles, "We took the liberty of attaching chakra locks to your ankles, so you'll come quietly.

**-------------3 minutes later-----------**

She was in the middle of the six rouge ninja that surrounded her. Sakura's chances of escaping this were very small. She couldn't teleport, the chakra locks were creating that impossible. Most of her strength was escaping her, since they'd managed to get another lock on her wrist.

"Come on, girly, give up." said one.

"We need to take you to the mist," said another.

"So come quietly."

Sakura growled under her breathe and attempted at using some tai-Jutsu.

"Fool."

The smallest ninja ran past Sakura and kicked her into the air, and using a strange technique, forcefully kicked her to the ground, creating a small explosion. Dust flew everywhere around Sakura as she laid there motionless in the middle of the small crater.

For some strange reason, her hair color changed back to its normal appearance of a soft pink tone and her bright green eyes.

The ninja quickly snapped the last chakra lock onto her wrist, then tied them together. Sakura was stripped of all her weapons and then carried carefully to the Village Hidden in the Mist.

**-------------+ KAKASHI, NARUTO, and SASUKE +-------------**

Naruto was really starting to get edgy, his eyes were starting to flicker between red and baby blue. The whiskers on his face had become more defined.

"Kakashi, I can smell her blood from here, but I just can't sense her." Naruto finally spat.

"Yea, and she's got such a high chakra level that I can't sense her either."

"Perhaps she's masking it. As I recall Sakura had become very good at this." Kakashi said.

They traveled maybe 60 more miles when Naruto nearly had a heart attack. Laying on the ground was Sakura's weapons pouch, something that she would never depart with.

"What is this doing here??"

That's when they realized that all of the surroundings looked like they'd just had a fight. Sakura's midnight black kunai were all over the trees and ground. The small crater in the middle of the area had a small pool of blood there. A black glove laid there on the ground shredded.

"What the hell happened here?!" Kakashi asked, looking around.

Naruto had slid into the crater and was smelling the blood, when his face twisted in pain, he looked over to Sasuke.

"It's Sakura's blood."

"We gotta go! Now!"

**)))))))))))))))))))))))))- ROUGE NINJA REACHES MIST -(((((((((((((((((((((((**

The rouge ninja quickly rushed into there head quarters, carrying Sakura as she laid unconscious in the one guys arms. She lacked her own chakra, which led her body to heal itself slower,

"Master, we have captured the girl."

"Very good. Did she put up a struggle?" asked the cooled sly voice.

"Yes, just like you'd hoped for. Her team should be here very shortly." said the ninja that still held Sakura.

"They had not been to far behind her." said a different ninja from the group.

"Ah, well you know what you must do. Get the girl changed."

The ninja's handed Sakura quickly over to their female companions so that they could get her changed from the clothes she currently wore.

**)))))))))))))))))))))))))- TEAM 7 REACHES MIST (2 days later) -(((((((((((((((((((((((**

The team shot into the Village, which appeared to be abandoned at the current moment. Nobody was to be seen, except for the small group of ninja that stood before them.

"Where is Sakura? What have you done with her?!" Naruto shouted angrily, ready to pounce any second.

The group of ninja just laughed and turned there heads to look at a small dangling cage that hovered in front of the tallest tower. A ninja sat on top of the iron cage, smiling evilly at Team 7 minus Sakura.

"Oh my gawd.... how did they...." Sasuke trailed off, starring at the person inside of the cage.

Sakura sat there. Hands bound tightly behind her back as she still wore the chakra locks. She wore a white halter top dress as her hair swayed freely in the wind. Just under her breasts was a rope that wrapped tightly around her and went to the cage bars, keeping her centered there. Her feet were also tied together with the same kind of chakra rope that was holding her in place.

"Give her to us!" Naruto growled.

_Don't worry Sakura, I'll save you. _


	10. The Rescue

Sakura looked up at her team, tears streaming down her face.

"Get away from here!! I can handle myself!! Go!!" Sakura cried down to them.

Fear covered all of her body, it was a thick blanket of smog and wouldn't leave her alone. She really did love her team and didn't want to lose them, none of them.

Beneath her was a strange looking hole, filled with water and ice crystals around it.

"Don't be stupid Sakura, we aren't leaving without you!" Naruto shouted, about to run up towards Sakura.

"We can make a fair trade?" Offered one of the ninja.

"Yes, you could have her back." Said another ninja.

"If we can have YOU!"

Sakura gasped, realizing what was really going on. Theses ninja wanted to have the 9-tailed fox and Sharingon powers.

"SASUKE! TRUST ME!! LEAVE! **NOW**!!!"

"You're kidding right, Sakura?"

The amused note in Sasuke's voice wasn't helping the situation at all. These ninja would either keep Sakura, aka: The Spirit Ninja, and brainwash her enough to have a strong weapon or take the teammates.

Raging angrily, Sakura shook and twisted, trying to break free of her ropes. The ninja would kill Naruto and Sasuke.

"Quit fussing young Sakura, you know you can't break these."

She glared angrily at the ninja.

"I wont quit fussing. Not until you're dead."

And Sakura was right, she was slowly warring away the ropes on the bars of the cage.

"Sakura, stay calm, we'll save you." Kakashi's voice sounded more like a forced calm.

He could see the small amount of blood on her arms that was holding her still.

"We've had enough. Are you going to give yourselves up then? Or not?"

Naruto laughed quietly and smiled.

"We fight."

The ninja that stood atop the cage Sakura sat in chuckled darkly and pulled out a kunai.

"Have it your way."

And like that he cut the rope that held the cage at a hover above the icy water and it crashed down.

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto watched in total fear as Sakura sunk to the deep depths of the crater.

"Bastards! Why do you have to kill her for us?!"

Naruto threw kunai knives nonstop while he ran at the ninja before him. (_sorry i suck at fighting... sorry_)

**)))))))))))))))))))))))))- 4 MINUTES LATER -(((((((((((((((((((((((**

The rouge ninja laid dead on the ground, while Sasuke dove into the water, praying that Sakura wasn't dead yet.

He reached out for the door and ripped it open, using a kunai, Sasuke quickly cutting the ropes that held her, he swam at full speed for the surface.

_Please, please, please, don't be dead. You can live through this Sakura. You're stronger then this._

Breaking the crystal smooth surface, Sakura was quickly pulled from Sasuke's arms and laid out on the ground, where Kakashi immediately started doing CPR. Naruto helped Sasuke out of the water, tears running down his cheeks.

"She's going to live, Naruto. She WILL live."

He didn't sound convincing, but Sasuke really didn't believe it himself. He was so afraid that the freezing water and lack of air had turned the only girl he truly loved into nothing but nothing.

Coughing broke through the emptiness.

"Sakura!"

Sakura laid there in the dress, soaking wet and freezing. She had no chakra in her body, which isn't good, considering her own chakra holds healing powers.

Kakashi frowned at his ex-student and shook his head. The chances of her being able to survive back to Konoha are very very small.

"Sakura, can you hear me?" Sasuke asked, holding himself over her.

She didn't say anything, just starred up at his face.

"Sakura, here, put this on."

Naruto handed her a change of clothes, which was actually a pair of blank ninja pants and faded gray long-sleeved t-shirt, along with some other dry undergarments.

Smirking slightly, Sakura forced herself up and wobbled behind a tree so that the guys wouldn't see her.

Kakashi helped Sakura remove the locks on her wrists and ankles, but just as he did that Sakura had a strange burst of energy and chakra started to poor from her body, very quickly.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Kakashi shouted, trying to make her stop.

None of them could get her to stop, because of all the built up chakra inside of her, it needed to get out and quickly.

"What had they been after, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, assuming it had been her.

Her cold eyes turned on him, which was about 4 steps back from where he was with her before. Before Sakura was talking and laughing with the team... and him.

"They'd be after you."

**-------------+ NARUTO'S POV +-------------**

I starred at Sakura like she was speaking Greek. She never snapped at Sasuke or glared at him coldly.

"Come on Sakura, lets get you home."

She looked at me with old eyes, they held more age in them then I'd ever seen in the before. Sakura actually looked like she aged before my very eyes.

"Alright, Naruto."

Helping her to her feet, the four of us slowly walked towards the directions of Konoha.

"Sakura, what did the ninja to do you?" Kakashi asked.

"Not much, they drugged me when I wasn't able to pay attention. Everything was mostly a blur. Sorry Kakashi. All I know is that they said they were after Naruto and Sasuke."

Frowning, I sighed with annoyance.

_Everyone's always after me. Why can't they all just stop and leave us alone, instead of dragging Sakura into this mess._

Hugging my friend close to me, I felt a fresh set of tears stream down her face.

"Everything's going to be okay, Sakura. Climb on, so we can get you home quicker."

She shook her head, starring at me tiredly.

"No. I can't go back there, not now."

"Why not?"

I could feel that old hand grab onto my heart, squeezing it. Losing Sakura again, I couldn't stand it.

"Sakura, you don't have to do this, really just come home." Kakashi said.

"I can't come back, Kakashi. Everything is just going to go down hill from here. With me back our team is just not going to be the same. You need to let me go." Sakura said, "I've gotten ties to you three that need to be cut. I need to become a shadow again."

I felt tears start to fill in my eyes. Sasuke had been the same way. He'd tried to sever his bonds and ties with us, and ended up turning all crazy.

"Sakura, you can't just leave. We need you with us. I love you like a sister!"

Tears streamed down both our faces.

"I need to do this Naruto. I'm not strong enough."

"Strong enough for what!?" Sasuke shouted.

Sakura whipped around and glared at Sasuke while tears streamed down her face.

"STRONG ENOUGH TO LOSE YOU AGAIN!"


	11. AWall

**-------------+ NORMAL POV +-------------**

Nobody said anything, just the cold wind blowing around the clearing. Finally, Kakashi spoke.

"Sakura, being a ninja, you know what the costs of this profession are. That there is never a real guarantee of everyone surviving."

Her cold gaze turned to Kakashi.

"I know what I'm getting into Kakashi. But right now, I need space from you three. I'm sorry, but with me being back around you again, I've made them an open target because of me." Sakura said, pointing to Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto growled, and grabbed Sakura by the shoulders and gave her a good shake.

"Sakura, I was always a target because of the _Kybunai_, you know that. Nothing will ever change that. Yea you're back, but that shouldn't change anything. It just makes us stronger, like when we were younger."

"When we were younger Naruto, I was the target for you too. If they even scratched me, then you would flip out and start fighting crazily."

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Sasuke shouted, noticing that he couldn't move.

That's when the other two noticed that they couldn't move either.

"I'm sorry, but I need to leave for a bit, I'll be back in four days, do you understand me?"

Sasuke fought all he could to get free of Sakura's unbreakable chakra strings, which bound him to the spot.

**-------------+ SASUKE'S POV +-------------**

I watched as Sakura slowly walked up to me, her eyes were filled with tears. She'd knocked out Kakashi and Naruto out already, I was next.

"Sakura you don't have to do this." I pleaded.

"Yea Sasuke, I do, I really do. What we did, that should have never happened. We can't be together, it's not right. It's just not right."

Confused, I fought with everything and reached out to touch Sakura's face, it was so soft to the touch.

**-------------+ NORMAL POV +-------------**

"Sakura, do you love me?"

"I do, I love with everything in me. But I can't do this to you anymore. With me being back puts you into danger. Even more so than normal. I can't do that to you anymore Sasuke."

"Don't leave me again! Sakura I need you with me! You keep me from going entirely insane! Please don't leave me again. I love you with everything in me. Sakura I'd give up everything and anything to keep you in my life!"

Tears continued to pour from Sakura's eyes, some slipped down Sasuke's as well.

"Please... don't make this any harder then in needs to be. I can't hurt you anymore, but I refuse to put you into anymore danger. I'm going to leave. You're not going to find me. Sasuke, I love you. I love with everything and will always remain loyal to you."

Then a just like that Sakura kissed him with all the passion that she could. Sakura had knock out on her lips and he passed out right then and there.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me."

And like that Sakura disappeared from Team 7s campsite.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FOUR HOURS LATER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Sasuke sat up slowly, holding his head tightly between his hands. The tears just poured down his face. Sakura had left, again, and this time. She didn't really plan on coming back. Or that's at least what it sounded like.

"Sasuke, we are going to find her. This time, we aren't losing her." Naruto growled, seeing how hurt his friend was that she'd left.

Sasuke shook his head and starred out after which direction he thought that she'd run.

"This time, I'm going to find her. On my own. You two go back and tell Tsunade."

And like that, Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Now what? They've both gone a-wall!" Naruto said, freaking out.

"I think they'll do it. Whatever is happening to Sakura, Sasuke is going to save her. They're meant for one another. I can just feel it.


	12. The Day of Rememberance

Three years had gone by now and everyone in the village of Konoha was bustling along, doing their normal routines and sticking to their own business's.

But today is the Day of Remembrance, for those whom had been lost in battle or had gone missing.

So at the moment, Sasuke was sitting in the field of cherry blossoms, a place that reminded him so much of her, and this day brings tears to his eyes every time. No one has heard anything from or about her and the rumor is she died protecting the Kazekage. But it's only a rumor and nobody knows for sure and Gaara wont answer any of the letters from Hokage.

After Sakura had left, the entire village stopped. Nobody knew what to think or what to do, she'd always brought joy to the people of Konoha and now she's just gone. Sakura had been the heart of the village, a bright light that would shine down and she always knew what to do it seemed.

And now most everyone in the Rookie Nine has been married and has created a new life and new family. Even Naruto and Hinata are married and expecting, and Naruto's become Lady Tsunade's assistant. Within a few years, rumor has it, Naruto will become the Hokage and Tsunade will be apart of the council. She's been preparing him and every decision that Naruto's made has been correct.

* * *

There she stood, atop the tallest tree before the Konoha gates. A young woman stood wearing a pair of black shinobi pants, exactly like Kakashi would have worn them, and black shinobi sandals. A black ANBU top that covers the lower half of her face, and black chest armor, instead of the white one armor that other ANBU wear. The brand of an ANBU Black Opps. could be seen clearly on her shoulder, not that anyone would ever see the tattoo.

Strapped to her back was pair of maroon handled katana's, which are well kept and maintained. Hidden behind a mask, one that looked like a fox with swirls and markings in dark maroon that looked fierce, yet calm. The mouth drawn up in a smile on the mask, making it look slightly more sinister, since the girl actually looks like she couldn't even hurt a fly. Yet all of the features are hidden under a thin black cloak.

She just stood there looking over Konoha, people walking around in kimonos and some wearing their every day uniforms. She knew that she had to see him, even if this was the last time.

* * *

Sasuke walked down the dirt path to the cherry blossom trees that were there not to far away from where the Uchiha mansion is. It was natural for him to go there on this day every year, as a way of paying his respects to Sakura. He knew that she wasn't dead, like everyone else believed; Naruto or Kakashi didn't believe it either but they want to believe she is, they want to be able to move on and to forget. So they act like its true so that everyone else would move on, even though it was killing Sasuke on the inside.

The only one that still believed she was alive is Sasuke, and that look she gave him before she left, her words. They haunted him day and night, he just couldn't forget about her. He needed her back in his life, even if that meant leaving Konoha to go out and find her. Sasuke just didn't care anymore; he wanted her back that's all he wanted.

Sasuke reached the largest cherry blossom tree in the center of the field and placed a small gift box there, an offering to Sakura's spirit. When he looked up again at the tree, what he found was a maroon katana stuck hard in the tree, a small person balancing on the blade.

Sasuke immediately went into defense mode and pulled out a kunai, ready to fight the intruder.

"Who are you and what do you want with Konoha?" he asked with a ruff voice.

"Hello Sasuke…"

His eyes widened and the kunai in his hand fell to the ground.

"Sakura…"

She jumped down and removed the blade from the tree and walked over to Sasuke, who stood frozen before the girl, unmoving and speechless.

"Where have you…"

Sasuke slowly reached out and pulled the mask free from her face, causing the hood to fall backwards, reviling middle back pastel pink hair and bright green eyes.

"I can't stay long… Akamaru will catch my scent soon…"

"Wait, what? Don't go! I can't let you go again! Sakura I need you with me! Without you by my side, it's killing me!"

Her eyes dropped from his and she starred down at the ground.

"Sasuke, I can't stay anymore, nobody will except my return. They'll attack us again, they'll try and take you and Naruto again."

Sasuke placed his head underneath her chin, lifting her head up so that he could see her eyes.

"Don't… don't break me again…"

Sakura lifted her hand up to Sasuke's face, feeling the smooth skin against his face made him smile.

"Sakura, I still love you. I still want you to be in my life…"

She froze. That one statement made the tears come, and they started to stream down her face like a waterfall.

"Sakura, marry me."

_***CRASH!***_

She starred at Sasuke, the rain started to fall, streaming down their faces. Sakura didn't know what to say.

The sound of dogs barking was off in the distance.

"I have to go…"

Sasuke grabbed onto Sakura's waist, pulling her close to himself, and their lips crashed together.

Tears and water dripping from both of their face's, Sakura laid her head against Sasuke's chest, smiling. Sakura slipped a small pink kunai into Sasuke's hand, a Uchiha fan handing from the end of it.

"Don't lose that, or leave it anywhere. I'll be back for it."

Nodding, Sakura kissed him one more time, and then squeezed his neck, and knocking him out cold.

"I love you still too, Sasuke. With all my heart."

I looked over at the small box that Sasuke had set down and picked it up. Inside was a small engagement ring that he was leaving there. Wiping the tears from my face, I picked Sasuke up over my shoulder and made a few quick hand signs, and in the swirl of cherry blossoms, we disappeared.

Laying Sasuke down on his bed, I left him a note and took the ring.


	13. Attack's Against Konoha

After everything was cleared up, about what happened in the field, Naruto started keeping a closer eye on Sasuke. The trail of Sakura's scent had run cold, they couldn't find it anywhere, it was believed that it was a fluke and wasn't even her scent. So Naruto tried to stay with Sasuke as much as possible, making sure that he wasn't completely loosing his mind about Sakura still being alive.

But that look that Sakura had given Sasuke, the day she left, was permanently embedded in his mind and he can't get rid of it. The pain she was causing herself, the look in her eyes, it reminded him of himself.

Both boys were sitting at the table eating breakfast, Sasuke starring out the window at the trees and sky, not saying much.

"I know that she couldn't have possible been there with you Sasuke, we've recently received a package from Suna. It was Sakura's headband, a scratch threw the Konoha symbol."

Looking back at Naruto, Sasuke shrugged his shoulders.

"She's still out there. I know that she is. I don't really care what Gaara sent here."

Naruto slammed his fists down on the table.

"SAKURA IS DEAD, SASUKE! SHE'S NOT COMING BACK!"

Sasuke just starred at Naruto with a strange expression that Naruto had never seen before. It was filled with pain and sorrow, along with a touch of _hope_. Seeing his friend act like this was either going to annoy him to high heaven or slowly kill him. When Sakura had left it was like Sasuke had died on the inside, the single flame that was in his heart was put out the day that she left. But the thought that she could even possibly be alive was what's keeping him moving forward. It's what's keeping him alive.

Before anything else could be said, Ino burst in through the door, panting heavily.

"Naruto, Sasuke! Konoha's under attack! Hurry! We need to fight!"

Dropping what they were doing, the boys both quickly changed out of their pajamas, Sasuke placing the pink kunai from Sakura in his pouch at the very bottom. Ready to go and fight both boys quickly left their house, not knowing if that was the last time they were ever going to see it or not.

* * *

Cuts covered everyone's body and the attacking ninja just kept coming and there wasn't anything that Konoha could do, they were dwindling in numbers and everyone was growing tired. People were dying and there wasn't much that could be done about it. Even Lady Tsunade was growing tired, Jiraiya as well.

Sasuke and Naruto stood back-to-back, kunai in Naruto's hands and the black katana in Sasuke's hand.

"They just keep coming." Naruto muttered.

"We actually need help." Sasuke agreed.

"Who's going to help us now? Everyone who can help us is here." Naruto growled.

Sasuke charged a few more ninja and Naruto followed him in the other direction.

"SAKURA!" Naruto and Sasuke cried out at the top of their lungs together.

Everyone continued fighting, ignoring the boys' cry out for their dead teammate. There was no way that she'd come back and help them , she's gone and dead. And now is when they needed her the most.

* * *

They had everyone pinned to the wall and the leader finally came forward his eyes black as night, and hair white as snow. Naruto was drug forward; he held a small knife in his hand, the blade sparkling in the sunlight. Naruto panted, arms held behind his back and head down. Blood dripped from his lip, his entire body covered with cuts and bruises.

"Hello Naruto."

Sasuke stopped struggling to get free and starred at the man. The same man whom they thought to have killed when he tricked and kidnapped Sakura.

"You bastard! Get away from him!" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto remained calm, he wasn't even attempting to fight or get away. He just knelt there and let himself be held.

"Silence! I'll deal with you next." Said the man.

Glaring angrily at him, Sasuke looked around frantically. They all needed something, anything. What they needed was a miracle.

"Since you killed my companions, I am going to kill you. And eye for an eye as it seems, to bad your lovely pinkette is dead. I would have loved to _**play**_ with her…"

Sasuke froze, he remembered what Sakura said, to keep that kunai that she'd be back for it

"If we were all you wanted then what do you want with Konoha?"

He laughed darkly and grabbed Naruto by the hair, forcing him to look up.

"I heard that the Jinchūriki had recreated, I must kill your child."

Naruto smirked and sealed his lips.

"News moves fast, funny thing is though, I'll kill you before you lay a single finger on her."

His eyes changed red and he growled angrily at the man

"Have I hit a nerve?"

The breeze shifted and little pink cherry blossoms floated around and Naruto's death glare turned into a smirk.

"Yes, I believe you have because first off, killing my two best friends is the biggest mistake you'll make."

The man whipped around and stood frozen in fear, his black eyes caught by the gaze of emeralds.

"Sakura!" Sasuke shouted out.

Her maroon katana pressed to his neck, a small line of blood dribbling down.

"They said you were dead."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear…"

Sakura's katana was pushed from his throat and he signaled for the goons holding Naruto to kill him, but she was faster than that.

Two of her black kunai pierced through the necks of them and Naruto got to his feet.

Sasuke smiled, and glanced at Naruto who was smiling just as brightly.

The rookie nine found new strength in the returning of the youngest and only Haruno left. Taking out all the rouge ninja, Naruto went to protect Hinata.

* * *

Blood had been sprayed across Sakura and Sasuke's face as they stood back to back. Panting heavily, Sakura pulled out three kunai that had paper bombs attached to them.

"We've almost got them all." Sasuke said.

"Yea, watch my back."

Jumping up high in to the air, Sakura threw the kunai and then another wave of shuriken, none of them hitting Sasuke and every single weapon was a killed attack.

That left only the leader.

The Rookie Nine finished off the other ninja then going to help those whom had been injured during the battle that took place in the Village.

"Come on, we have to get him, he isn't working alone!" Sakura said, racing quickly after the man.


	14. Home

"You came back…"

"I said I would."

Sakura and Sasuke attacked the man quickly and had him locked down under chakra locks. Chakra ropes were tied around him tightly and the couple stood there starring angrily at him, as he lay there unconscious.

Smiling at Sasuke, Sakura lifted her hand to Sasuke's face and it glowed green, healing his wounds on his face, making him look good as new.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you come back?"

Stopping, Sakura starred straight into his eyes.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." She whispered back to him, "That's why I came back."

Standing there, Sasuke wiped the blood from Sakura's nose and lip and then swiftly kissed her, showing her how much he truly missed her. Returning the kiss, just as passionately, Sasuke could feel Sakura smiling against him, but also slipping away too.

"Tsunade's going to be very mad…"

"Yea she is," Sakura said, "Have you SEEN what happened to Konoha today?"

Chuckling darkly, they tried to walk back towards the village, until Sakura fell to the ground unmoving.

"Sakura, Sakura what's wrong?"

Cuts all over her body had been infected with poison. More than likely from when she started to fight.

A strange realization Sasuke had as he rushed back to Konoha, and to Tsunade, was that you never know how much you truly love someone until they're almost gone.

Sakura had been in intensive surgery and wouldn't be aloud to leave or to have any visitors. Not even Sasuke could go in and sit with Sakura, that's how bad it was.

Tsunade had told him that she was suffering from so much emotional stress that it was literally eating away at her and she had major internal damage along with something that was wrong with her heart.

* * *

After almost a month had gone by, and that's including Naruto's twenty-second birthday, Sakura was finally cleared to leave the hospital. So now Sasuke's twenty-two years old and Sakura is twenty years old, and she's the youngest ninja in the Rookie Nine still.

Within weeks Hinata had her child, and her child Naoto Uzumaki. I looked exactly like Naruto, with yellow blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes. Everyone seemed to be moving on. The world was at piece for now… and finally Sakura and Sasuke got married and had a child of their own. It turns out that Sakura had been pregnant while she fought and got injured a month ago.

Sakura had her baby boy, Ichiro on December 7th, two days after Hinata. He looked just like his father. Everyone was have children or was pregnant. Kakashi and Anko finally showed their children. Shikamaru and Temari got married, along with Ino and Sai. Neji married Tenten and Kiba met a sweet girl and they soon got married as well.

All seemed to be good in the world, and Konoha was bustling with younger children, eager to be powerful Ninja like their own parents. And of course, Naruto became the Hokage.

* * *

Well that is the end of the Spirit Ninja! I Know Right? It took me forever and I really needed to edit the last three chapters because I personally thought that they were crappy and rushed though.  
Anyways! I am going to be making a sequel! I mean, of course there has to be more! Everyone has children and such! Sooo keep a look out for the sequel:

**The Fire's Shadow**


End file.
